9.  The applicants were born in 1960, 1959, 1989 and 1984, respectively. The first and the second applicants are married. They are the parents of the third and fourth applicants. The applicants were living in Hakkari at the time of the events giving rise to the present application. Their current address is unknown.
10.  On 28 July 1999 the applicants arrived in Turkey. According to the applicants' submissions, they had fled Iran because the first applicant, a police officer, had aided political dissidents in Iran and had therefore feared for his life and that of his family.
11.  On an unspecified date the applicants applied to the national authorities in Hakkari for temporary residence permits. According to the Government's submissions, on 2 August 2002 the applicants' request was dismissed by domestic authorities since the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (the “UNHCR”) had refused to recognise the applicants' refugee status.
12.  On an unspecified date the applicants moved to Istanbul.
13.  In 2002 the applicants converted to Christianity and began working for the Gedik Paşa Armenian Protestant Church in Istanbul. They acted as servers during the Sunday services. The fourth applicant also worked as a Sunday school teacher for the children in the church. The third applicant further worked for the International Protestant Church in Istanbul. In letters dated 28 August 2005 and 17 January 2007, the leaders of the Iranian Fellowship in Istanbul and the president of the Touch of Christ ministries confirmed that the applicants were involved in the Gedik Paşa Church. The third and fourth applicants were not accepted to study at the Iranian Consulate School in Istanbul because the Iranian authorities were aware of their religious faith.
14.  On 1 and 9 April 2008, after being interviewed, the applicants were recognised as refugees by the UNHCR in Ankara. The UNHCR found that the first applicant's claims that he had been imprisoned for not following religious practices in 1991, and that he had disobeyed orders which he had received during the student demonstrations in 1999 as he was a supporter of the student movements, were credible. The UNHCR also found that the applicants had been converted to Christianity and were involved in proselytising Iranian tourists in Turkey, as a result of which the Iranian Consulate in Istanbul and the domestic authorities in Iran had become aware of their conversion. The UNHCR concluded that the first applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution based on his conversion to Christianity and his activities to promote Christianity during his stay in Turkey and, therefore, recognised him as a refugee on the ground of his religion.
15.  After having been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR, the applicants moved back to Hakkari on the instructions of the UNHCR in order to legalise their status in Turkey.
16.  On 14 May 2008 the applicants applied to the foreigners' department at the Hakkari police headquarters and the Hakkari public prosecutor's office for residence permits. Statements were taken from them by police officers. When the first and fourth applicants were asked how they could have stamps on their passports showing that they had travelled to Iran during their stay in Turkey between 2002 and 2008, they maintained that they had gone to Iran illegally with falsified Iranian passports and re-entered Turkey in order to validate their visas and to take Bibles in Farsi to Iran. The applicants further maintained that they had been recognised as refugees under the UNHCR's mandate.
17.  On 30 July 2008 the applicants were requested to appear at the Hakkari police headquarters, where they were told that they would be deported to Iran that day. Later that day the applicants were deported to Iran.
18.  On 31 July 2008 the applicants re-entered Turkish territory illegally. On 21 August 2008 the applicants went to the UNHCR office in Ankara, where they were once again interviewed by the UNHCR regarding the circumstances of their deportation and re-entry into Turkey. Following the interview, the UNHCR found that the applicants' account was credible and considered that the applicants' refugee status continued to be valid. During their interview the applicants stated that they were afraid to approach the domestic authorities as they feared being deported to Iran again.
19.  In August 2008 the applicants' representative lodged an application with the General Police Headquarters for the suspension of the deportation decision and the grant of residence permits, having regard to the interim measure indicated under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. He received no response to his application. According to the submissions of the applicants' representative, the applicants are currently in hiding in Ankara.